SwANTON] INDIAJSFS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 771 



at the feast whose bones have been broken or mutilated ; nor shall a rejected ani- 

 mal be brought within the magic circle, but shall be given to those of the tribe 

 who, by some misdeed, have rendered themselves unworthy to partake of the 

 feast. The hunters are always compelled to return from the chase at the sunset 

 hour, and long before they come in sight of their villages they invariably give a 

 shrill whistle, as a signal of good luck, whereupon the villagers make ready to 

 receive them with a wild song of welcome and rejoicing. 



The pall of night has once more settled upon the earth, the moon is in its glory, 

 the wlatch-fire has been lighted within the magic circle, and the inhabitants of 

 the valley are again assembled together in one great multitude. From all the 

 cornfields in the valley the magicians have collected the marked ears of corn, and 

 deposited them in the kettles with the various kind of game which may have 

 been slaughtered, from the bear, the deer, and the turkey, to the opossum, the 

 squirrel, and the quail. The entire night is devoted to eating, and the feast 

 comes not to an end until all the food has been dispatched, when, in answer to an 

 appropriate signal from the medicine man, the bones which have been stripped 

 of their flesh are collected together and pounded to a kind of powder, and scat- 

 tered through the air. The seven days following this feast are devoted to dancing 

 and carousing, and at the termination of this period the inhabitants of the valley 

 retire to their various villages, and proceed to gather in their crops of the sweet 

 maize or Indian corn. (Lanman, 1856, vol. 2, pp. 424-428.) 



A valuable early epitome of Cherokee ceremonies is furnished by 

 Charles Hicks, a literate chief who wrote down the following narra- 

 tive in the year 1818 : 



Before eating the green com when in the milk, the people collect in the different 

 towns and villages at night, and when the — ("this word is not understood in 

 Mr. Hick's original") comes, the conjurer takes some of the grains of seven ears of 

 corn and feeds the fire with them, i, e., burns them. After this each family is 

 allowed to cook and eat their roasting-ears, but not before they drink a tea of 

 wild horehound. In like manner they observe the same custom before eating the 

 bean when it fills in the hull. 



The green com dance, so called, has been highly esteemed formerly. This is 

 held when the corn is getting hard and lasts four days, and when the national 

 council sits — a quantity of venison being procured to supply the dance. It is said 

 that a i)erson was formerly chosen to speak to the people on each day in a lan- 

 guage that is partly lost — at least there is very little of it known now. At such 

 times as the above, a piece of land is laid off and persons appointed to occupy it — 

 no others being allowed to use it while the feast continues. 



There is a custom, which still prevails, of making a new fire every year, gen- 

 erally in the month of March. The fire is made by drilling in a dried grape vine, 

 which begins in the morning after an all night dance. Seven persons are appointed 

 to perform this with the conjurer. After the fire is made, each family in the 

 town comes and procures the new fire, putting out all the old fires in their houses. 



The physic dance was very much in use formerly, but partly neglected now. This 

 belongs to the women in particular, except seven men who are chosen, one out of 

 each clan, to carry the water to boil the physic, and when boiled, to carry it to 

 the people, for old and young to drink. But they never drink of it until the singer 

 has proclaimed, with his song, on the top of the Town House, "Hayan wah, Youth- 

 eaunu" (repeating the same several times) and [they have] painted all the posts 

 of the house white with clay, and danced t\^ of the nights in seven, and in the 

 morning after the last night bathed themselves in the water .... 



